Encore has released the well-received sci-fi action game, Battle Engine Aquila, for the PC crowd over a year after it hit consoles, and the results are definitely a mixed bag. Single-player game lovers will find a worthy entertainment here; fans of multiplayer, on the other hand, will be shocked and dismayed.

Battle Engine Aquila is surprisingly impressive. It was a gorgeously visceral, special effects loaded extravaganza of sci-fi warfare on the Xbox, and it remains so on the PC. Jacking up the resolutions to PC standards, it’s still great looking. The battle engine of the title can transform from a massive walker robot into a jet fighter, but the catch is that it only fly a limited amount. The Starship Troopers overtones of the stark military atmosphere and often overwhelming odds add a layer of intensity, and there’s a cinema-driven storyline in there somewhere as well.

More importantly is the sheer size of the single player game. Forty-three missions mean plenty of bad things to blow up, and the branching mission tree and grading system ensure that performance dictates what mission comes next. The gameplay is a fast-paced mix of fire and forget, and scouting for the most part, and certainly as much fun on the PC as it was on a console system. Where the port goes wrong is the complete lack of effort put into the multiplayer side. The game only supports split-screen two-player action, which is useless to say the least.

Multiplayer inadequacies aside, Battle Engine Aquila is a very entertaining action game, with plenty of science fiction flavor, a ton of missions, intense action, and great graphics. Plus, as with most obscure action games and console ports, it’s sure to be cheap right from the start. All in all, you could do worse for an action fix.